Here are the best family tents for bad weather to keep your family safe and dry this summer (or all seasons):
Camping with your family can be the ultimate bonding experience. Away from the humdrum of life, you get to connect with nature and spend time as a family. However, you do not want this experience to turn into a bad one.
Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to be prepared for bad weather when you go camping. Weather changes in a flash, so getting the right family tent for bad weather is a must.
Your family will be safe and protected from the elements without worrying about your safety. They are some of the best on the market, meaning you can buy them with full confidence and have a fun-filled and unforgettable camping trip.
9 Best Family Tents For Bad Weather Reviewed
All tents in this review come in different sizes and designs. Clicking any product link in this review will take you straight to that tent’s page where they discuss more its details.
Best Overall – Kodiak Flex-Bow Canvas Deluxe Tent
The Kodiak Canvas Flex-Bow Deluxe is among the best choices for the bad weather family tent purchase. It is just right for any occasion, whether it is a camping trip or a weekend out of town.
It houses up to eight people and provides ample space for everybody.
Best for any kind of weather, be it rain or sunshine, the tent’s exterior is made using marine-grade material treated with a silicone dry-finish. It ensures a waterproof haven for you.
With 100 square feet of floor space and a 6.6-foot ceiling, you can walk around the tent comfortably. In addition, it has a 6×4 foot porch awning, which provides a covered protection area outside, and two doors.
Additionally, it is made of hydra-shield cotton duck canvas, making it highly durable, breathable, and very water-resistant.
The fabric highly reduces the chances of condensation, mugginess, and high humidity. It is the perfect bad weather family tent, one that you can buy without a second thought.
Browning Camping Big Horn Tent
The Browning Camping Big Horn Tent is one of the best family tents for use in bad weather. It is very affordable in price. It is a huge and tall freestanding tent with two doors and six windows.
This tent is an excellent example of a freestanding tent, which means you can pitch it on any terrain. It is also fully self-supporting and does not have to be staked to the ground.
It is also very tall with a height of about 84 inches and very spacious with a floor space of 150 square feet. This vast tent has two rooms, six inside organizers, and a divider, giving you added privacy.
With a mesh roof, four windows, and two doors, the ventilation part is well taken care of and helps circulate air better.
However, with such great features, it is also very heavy. It can withstand any kind of bad weather. It is water-resistant and can easily handle both high winds and severe rain.
Ozark Trail 10 Person Tent
The Ozark Trail Family Cabin Tent can easily accommodate up to ten people. It is very roomy and spacious, with windows on all sides and a room divider that can divide the tent into separate living and sleeping spaces.
Its durable 68D coated polyester fabric gives lasting rain protection and keeps you dry and safe in all kinds of bad weather.
With a gear loft and electric cord access, this tent is perfect for your family camping trip, in bad weather or good.
CORE 9-Person Extended Dome Tent
The Core 9-Person Extended Dome Tent is a huge family tent that can accommodate nine people and comfortably fit three air mattresses. With a 72-inch center height, it gives you and your family enough room to walk in and move about with ease.
Perfect for bad weather, this tent features Core H20 Block Technology, which has excellent water repellant techniques, and the fabric has active bead technology for faster water runoff.
Together with its rain-resistant door, window seals, and sealed seams, it is the perfect buy for your family camping trip.
Its advanced venting system and mesh windows and ceiling allow for proper ventilation and circulation of air, keeping you cool and comfortable.
It also keeps your gear organized with its organizer pockets, gear loft, and lantern hook.
Wenzel 8-Person Klondike Tent
The Wenzel 8-Person Klondike Tent is the best tent for families with children who would like a spacious tent to allow the kids more room and still have some privacy.
With 6.5 feet of headroom, it can fit two queen-sized air beds inside, and its Weather Armor fabric protects you from the rain and wind blowing outside.
The tent has several cool features to enhance your camping experience. The tent has a large front screen awning with weather protection, which makes it ideal for changing your wet and dirty shoes and clothes without soiling the interior of your tent.
There is a vent at the back of the tent for ventilation, mesh openings at the top, a full mesh roof, and two mesh windows, allowing airflow and keeping your tent cool.
Moreover, the tent is made of polyester and has a polyurethane water-resistant coating, which protects it from rainy weather elements and lets you have a spectacular camping experience.
Coleman Elite Montana 8-Person Tent
The Coleman Elite Montana 8-Person Tent is one of the best waterproof and bad weather family tents. It has a 74-inch center height and is size 16 feet by 7 feet, which is very large and spacious.
It can easily accommodate eight people and fit three air mattresses. It has two rooms for your added privacy too.
The tent comes with a water-resistant and waterproof floor with sealed seams, which stops water from getting inside at all.
In addition, with its Weathertech system with welded corners, inverted seams, and rain flies, you and your family and friends will stay dry and have a great camping experience.
The Coleman Elite Montana also comes with a big door with an added awning, which is a great necessity as it allows you to change your dirty clothes and shoes before going inside the tent. Ventilation is also good with its angled windows.
One of the most excellent accessories that come with this tent is its integrated LED lighting, which is operated by a switch.
HIKERGARDEN CAMPROS 8-Person Tent
The HIKERGARDEN CAMPROS 8-person tent is one of the best family tents on the market today. Suitable for eight people, it is very roomy and spacious. You can easily fit three air mattresses inside or eight individual sleeping bags. Great, isn’t it?
The HIKERGARDEN CAMPROS 8-person tent can be installed within ten minutes. This tent also has a high windproof and waterproof index, making it an ideal bad weather family tent. It has an engineered high wind responsive frame with redesigned poles, which keeps the tent stable in windy and rainy weather.
The tent has one large mesh door, five mesh windows, and a mesh tent top, enabling proper airflow and ventilation. It allows you to stargaze without letting any insects in too.
Compared to its size, it is very lightweight. There is also a curtain provided, which you can hang inside for more privacy. Overall, it’s a great tent to go camping with your family.
Rightline Gear SUV Tent
The Rightline Gear SUV Tent is something that you should consider for your family tent. As the name suggests, the tent is like an extra room attached to your SUV.
It allows you to sleep in your car, which gives you additional space to house your family or friends. It is large enough to house four people, while two more can easily sleep in the car.
The tent is also highly water-resistant, and its tape-sealed seams give you additional protection from the elements. Moreover, the big window allows proper ventilation of air, keeping it fresh and cool.
Furthermore, it has a universal fit. The tent’s vehicle sleeve is compatible with any size SUV, minivan, Jeep Wrangler hardtop, wagon, or pick-up truck. Additionally, no ground tarp is required to set up this tent.
Have a perfect camping trip with the Rightline Gear SUV Tent and enjoy the sound of the rain pouring outside while you stay all cozy and dry inside!
NTK Arizona GT Tent
The NTK Arizona GT tent is huge and roomy. It stands as high as 6.2 feet and can easily accommodate about nine to ten people.
Great for a large family gathering, it has a fully covered fly that will give you protection in any weather condition, be it rain, wind, storm, or sunshine. It has two rooms, two doors, and three windows covered with mesh for proper ventilation and airflow.
Stitched with two layers of 190T polyester, it has a coating of 2500 mm polyurethane. Its material also provides protection from ultraviolet (UV) rays.
Nano-flex shock-corded fiberglass is used to make frame rods. These rods have gold-plated ferrules.
Moreover, the floor is made with a solid antifungal seamless polyethylene that keeps you dry from the elements of nature and lets you have a relaxed and enjoyable camping trip.
Features To Look For When Buying A Bad Weather Family Tent
When you are out looking for a family tent to go camping in any weather, keep a few things in mind. Look for the following features in the tents, and you will be all set to have the ultimate camping experience, come rain or shine.
Size
The size of the tent is critical when buying a family tent. Buy one with an enormous capacity so that you, your family or friends, and all your gear can fit comfortably in it. In bad weather, you will not want anything to be out in the open. So, pay special attention to your tent’s size.
Material and Flooring
The next important thing is the material and flooring of the tent you buy. Besides being waterproof, go for polyester or nylon versions rather than cotton ones [1].
The reason behind this is that polyester tents are lightweight and do not absorb water. Water-resistance is something you will absolutely need in a family tent for bad weather.
Also read: How to keep your tent off the ground.
Lightweight
Look for lightweight tents. When you are hiking to your camping location, you need your tent to be light to carry your other things around. Synthetic materials like polyester or nylon are lightweight and highly water-resistant.
Quick Setup
A quick setup feature is among the most important things to look for when buying a family tent. You will not want to invest too much time and energy when setting up a tent.
You just want to lounge around the fire and spend some quality time with your family. The same goes for when you dismantle your camp. At the end of a successful camping trip, you do not want the hassle of dismantling it.
Therefore, the best way is to look for a quick setup feature in your tents, which generally have easy and clear instructions and a straightforward procedure.
Ventilation
Now, we come to ventilation. No matter how spacious your tent is, it is just not worth it if you will suffocate because of proper ventilation.
Go for tents with multiple meshed windows, possibly angled to be open even while it is raining. These will let in air as well as let out the dampness. Meshed doors are also a great option.
Apart from that, a meshed roof can also provide some extra air circulation and let you vent out your tent. A meshed roof will let you stargaze when it is dry outside too.
FAQs
Here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about tents.
What’s the best tent for family camping?
My pick is the Kodiak Flex-Bow Canvas Deluxe Tent.
What is the best tent for the money?
You can check out this tent.
Will a tarp over a tent keep it warmer?
If you want your tent to be warm and cozy, then add an extra tarp. The additional cover will help keep the heat from escaping through the fabric while also adding insulation for a more comfortable experience inside of this shelter.
The Verdict
All the tents in this review are great for bad weather. It depends on what size or material you are looking for that suits your family.
My personal best pick is the Kodiak Flex-Bow Canvas Deluxe Tent because it has the best quality material that can stand against all weather.
Investing in a durable and robust water-resistant family tent for bad weather is your best bet for camping in any weather. You will be protected from the elements of nature and spend some quality time with your family and friends.
However, keep in mind the size of the tent you need, its water-resistant qualities, durability, weight, and the time it took to set it up.
Buying a robust and heavy-duty bad weather family tent will keep you and your loved ones dry and safe and let you have a fun and enjoyable camping trip.
